xp_logs | Adrienne and Bishop: Case File (Reply)

Adrienne brings Bishop liquor, then gets bad news, then decides she doesn't like Bishop because he was a cop or is a man. There's no telling.

Clutching a bottle wrapped in a paper bag with one gloved hand, Adrienne sauntered through the corridors of the mansion, counting off suite numbers in her head. She paused in front of the door she hoped was Bishop's, biting her lip, nervous about the thought of what the former NYPD detective could tell her about her missing employees, and nervous about the man himself. The man who'd given her file to Garrison. Had he read it? What did he know about her? Taking in a deep breath, as if she was about to dive into a deep pool, she knocked firmly on the door.

"Enter." Was Bishop's response. He looked into a mirror he had moved to the desk he was at so that he could see the door easily. After a moment of finishing up his current project he closed the file and turned around, offering a polite smile. "If the mansion is where beautiful women bring guys like me Makers just for asking from my computer then I may just decide to stay." He liked to think he was good at the funny-because-they're-cheesy one line introductions that he used to break the ice. They had served him well enough in the past when he often walked into rooms of people that already hated him.

"How do you know it's Makers?" Adrienne asked with a smirk, pausing just inside the doorway. Wow, the man looked imposing. And extremely attractive. And like he could squash her like a bug. And she really hoped he wasn't a telepath. "Maybe it's a tofu-and-sprout sandwich I'm holding on to for my lunch or something like that. Unless your mutant power is x-ray vision?" she suggested, giving away the fact that it was indeed Makers she'd brought him.

"The store gave you a brown bag for just one bottle, they're always too short. Makers is the only liquor that uses red wax to seal over the cap and it's one of the few that still has a square bottle. They were changed to that design to prevent the bottles from rolling off a car seat, before drinking and driving became illegal." Bishop smirked a bit. A telepath, of course not, just observant; he liked to think, anyway. "But I'll be on my guard in case you decide to come eat in front of me in the future."

Adrienne rolled her eyes. "Cop. Right, I forgot." Of course he was observant. "More than just a cop, though, I believe? Detective, maybe? All Garrison told me was that you used to be NYPD."

"I did a little of everything but I was a detective when I left, yes. I dealt with a lot of mutant affairs which is what I do now as well." Bishop turned his chair around all the way to face her instead of the desk, leaning forward to pull the extra chair over for Adrienne. He then pulled open a desk drawer and produced two tumblers for them to drink from.

"Thank you," Adrienne murmured, motioning to the tumbler, "but I'm not really one for liquor. Haven't really had a taste for it since the night my husband was killed," she smirked wryly. She took the chair, however, taking the bottle out of its bag and placing it on the corner of Bishop's desk. "I know all about Snow Valley so you don't have to do the whole cover up 'I work in mutant affairs' thing," she explained, crossing her legs smoothly. "I've come to see if you have any information for me on my missing employees."

Bishop pulled a file from his desk and handed it to her. He poured two glasses of Makers and handed her one. "You're going to want this before you open that." He actually did work in mutant affairs but that was neither here nor there considering what the topic had just changed to.

With a frown, Adrienne put the glass back onto the desk and read through the file. She sat quietly, without speaking or moving, though upon completion of the document her face was drained of colour and her lips were drawn into a tight line. "I see," she said finally, and reached for the alcohol on the desk, downing it in one quick swig. "Thank you for your help, Mr. Bishop." She was intending to get up and walk away, but her legs didn't seem to be moving.

"I'm sorry that it wasn't good news." Bishop drank his glass after he spoke and poured himself another. He left the bottle uncapped and next to her glass, leaving the decision for her.

"I suppose when you deal in mutant affairs," Adrienne began slowly, "you become used to this sort of thing. Mutants trying to take over the world and killing or disabling people." She gave him a watery laugh. "I've only been here a few months and I've encountered it three times already personally. But this is the first time I've ever..." She had to stop talking as her voice broke. It was the first time anyone she'd felt responsible for had been directly affected by a mutant attack. "I suppose it becomes easier to swallow the longer one stays in this sort of environment, yes?"

"With what I've seen, between those with powers and those without, we can be more similar then we want to admit. I've seen all sorts of people do all sorts of things and it shouldn't ever become easier to see. It's a good thing that you're reacting like this..." There wasn't much more to say. Bishop would have tried touching her arm to comfort her, to show she wasn't alone, but he didn't want to make things any worse and he knew what her own powers were.

The psychometrist poured herself a second glass and knocked it back, the burning sensation in her throat that the alcohol created being much more welcome than the one being created by the grief she was feeling. Some of the deceased Bishop had tracked down had been with her since she started the business."Reacting like what?" she asked bitterly. "Like some weak, whiny woman? There's something you can take back to my sister- a report on what a fucking sap I am." She set the glass down, a little bit violently. "Fuck, I need something to take my mind off this."

"No, you're reacting like a healthy person instead of someone who is emotionally dead." She was angry and he understood that. She also had certain aspects of herself that she was conscious of and he understood that too. He thought she was reacting appropriately, more importantly he thought it wasn't his place to judge her reaction at all. "I don't report to your sister as much as you may think. She hired me for a job. Others hire me too. None of them are my bosses, they are my customers." Bishop poured them both another glass of Makers. "That position always gets the same consideration from me."

"I didn't hire you," Adrienne said, pointing a finger, just so they were clear on that point. She knocked back another glass. "I'm not your customer. You volunteered. An' I already brought you that bottle. So that's all the payment you're getting." If he was trying to take her mind off what she'd read by pissing her off, it was working.

"I take liquor as payment gladly. I would suggest I was doing a favor for a friend but I can't make that call, can I?" Bishop drank his glass. "At least not with you yelling at me so much." If she needed someone to be upset at for the moment he didn't have a problem playing that role. It's not like she was going to hurt him over it.

With a scoff, Adrienne rose from the chair. A proper berating was always better when you could look down on the person. "We're not friends. You're NYPD- or at least, you were. An' I don't have friends. Because if you let people in, they just end up hurting you or getting themselves killed."

"And I can pick the reason I'd like?" Bishop laughed a bit, honestly. He had an odd sense of humor that appreciated contradiction. "Then you were a customer. Your information is safe. Thank you for the alcohol." He capped the bottle and put it and the glasses back in his desk. When he didn't want to argue he did the only other thing he had trained himself to, which Adrienne should appreciate; he shut the situation down.

"Pick whatever damn reason you want," Adrienne muttered grumpily, stalking towards the door. "Men are such assholes," she cursed under her breath before turning back to him in the doorway. "Thank you for the information."